Black Roses
by keller12917
Summary: A mysterious person is spreading rumors about Steve. Is the sole purpose to split Steve and Jeannie up, or is there more behind the threats?


**BLACK ROSES**

****A/N** **Thank you to Meixel for beta reading my work for me. It is deeply appreciated. ****

****Thank you to Briroch for summary suggestion and for some suggestions for the story. It is deeply appreciated.****

_Disclaimer: I make no profit off of anything related to "Streets of San Francisco" or the characters. I am not the creator of the series. _

**Jeannie**  
>"Steve had disappeared or so we thought. We had had no word from him and it was getting later and later in the day. All we knew was he was going to visit some friends, but planned to be back soon.<p>

There had been so many things going on lately that had all of us on edge.

I had confronted Steve about calls I had received, claiming he was cheating on me. When I got the first call I didn't believe it, when they kept coming I started thinking there might be something to it, given the reputation he was supposed to have, prior to getting with me. Even though he adamantly denied the claims with this shocked and hurt look, I still thought there might be something to the calls. That is until I found out about letters Mike was receiving, making claims that Steve had been abusing me, and had intimidated me so I would not tell Mike. I know for sure that this is a pack of lies, as Steve would never hurt me! Thank God Mike didn't believe the letters one bit either. That helped me see that the calls had to be lies as well. We didn't know who was doing all of this!

Little could we know that those first phone calls was just the beginning. In the days that followed, I noticed a strange car parked in the street at all hours of the day  
>and night, but any attempts to get close enough to see the license plates usually ended with the car speeding away. The hang-up phone calls began, something that<br>frightened me as I had never had these type of phone calls before.

I paced the house, uncertain what to do. I had expected Steve home before dinner, he had promised he would be gone only a few hours, but he had not returned. Too restless to sleep, I picked up the unopened mail I had dropped on the table after I had got home. Flicking through it, in an attempt to keep my mind off of Steve, I paused as I stared at the plain white envelope that was just addressed with my name. I felt a sense of dread and my hand shook as I forced myself to open it and slowly withdrew the photo it contained. My heart froze as I found myself staring at the blackened, burned remains of a Porsche."

**Mike**  
>"Jeannie and I feared the worse but honestly had no idea how to hope for the best. It was like he had vanished into thin air. Jeannie was frantic and trust me I was not far from losing my mind. Last night the phone rang and it was Steve saying he'd be home today in time for work. At least I hoped it was him, for some reason his voice hadn't sounded exactly like Steve's.<p>

I didn't broach the subject of the photo with him over the phone and I didn't order him to come home. Although, believe me, I felt like it. I told Jeannie he was staying the night and he will be home tomorrow. Finally, she looked less worried. I wish I knew if the letters and calls and this photo were connected.

Little did I know that tomorrow we'd see something else added to this scenario."

**Steve **  
>"I needed to unwind a bit. I did not know who was behind all the strange happenings. The strain was telling on all of us and I had not told Mike or Jeannie about the notes left on my car or at SFPD. They were full of threats and ramblings from what appeared to be a very unstable mind. I was feeling angry and afraid, not for myself, but for Jeannie and Mike. Many of the notes made threats to the ones who I loved. I was not sure if the writer meant Mike, who is my mentor, best friend and a man that I consider to be a father or they meant Jeannie, who is truly the love of my life and my other best friend.<p>

As I was driving home, I noticed a car that appeared to be trailing me. My heart was beating hard as I took a short sightseeing trip down several narrow streets and the car followed. I cursed silently that the Porsche did not have a police radio, but each time I slowed down in an attempt to read the other car's plate, he slowed down and kept his distance. I was finally able to shake him and drove around for another half an hour, to satisfy myself my tail was indeed gone before I headed home.

Mike was waiting for me when I arrived home. The distressed look on his face warned me that something was wrong as he held out a photo. I swallowed hard and took it from his hand, staring at the image of the blackened car as Mike said quietly, "Jeannie received this last night." My hand shook as I stared at the image before i looked wordlessly back at the worried face of my best friend and partner. Who ever this was, their behavior was escalating."

**Mike**

"When Rudy called Steve up to his office, he had me come along as well. Neither of us was prepared for Rudy's news! There was to be an investigation into Steve's conduct with female suspects, thanks to some letters Rudy has been receiving with claims against Steve. At least Rudy let us know he has no doubt it is a bunch of baloney, but he still has to do an investigation and wanted us to be aware.

Has Steve hacked someone off for all this to be happening or is any of this even about that?"

**Jeannie **  
>"After work that evening, I went out with a friend as Steve and Mike had said they would be working through supper when they called to check on me. When she brought me home, we spotted a box left on the third step. It looked to be a florist box so I thought it was probably from Steve, how wrong I was. I waited until we were in the house before I opened the box.<p>

When I saw the roses in the box I got the shakes - as black roses are said by some to mean death - then I saw the note laying on top of the roses that read condolences on death of Steve Keller and sort of lost it. Wouldn't you on what seems to be an obvious threat to your fiance?! My friend called Mike and told him what had happened. Before I knew it, he and Steve were there. I was given a sedative and put to bed, while they stationed a team outside the house.

_Even daughters of cops have moments where they have had too much to deal with!"_

**Steve **  
>"We made sure everything was secure before leaving Jeannie so we could get the box and its contents to the lab. Before leaving I got the notes I received from the glove compartment in my car as I thought now I needed to let Mike know about them. I guess really I should have told him when I found out about the calls Jeannie was getting and the letters Mike was receiving, not to mention the investigation Captain Olsen is having to do regarding me.<p>

After we got the box to the lab, I told Mike I needed to speak with him in his office. Once behind closed doors I laid all the notes on his desk. I told him where I had got them and for how long they had been coming. He put on gloves to handle them so he could read the contents.

I saw his eyes and face get very dark. To say he was angry is an understatement: yeah, I should have told him right when I got the first one. I know everyone in the squad room could probably hear him lecturing me. It ran the gamut from 'you should have told me, buddy boy,' to 'you can't handle everything on your own even if you think you can,' to 'this is evidence and you withheld it - do you realize that this now is part of a case and I could suspend you for holding this back from me?'

Finally, he bagged the notes and we took them to the lab to be checked for prints other than mine. I knew he had every right and reason to be angry with me - but yes, I did think I could handle whatever was happening without bothering him with it."

**Mike **

"I left the office after we got the notes to the lab to see Cappy. I needed to see if he had heard anything about someone after Steve. To be honest as angry as I was that Steve withheld those notes from me, I needed more than a few minutes to cool down. If I would have known about the threats when he first started getting them, we might know who is behind them by now. Not that the boy is not an excellent detective but two heads are better than one. When I got finished talking to Cappy and went back to the department, I headed to the lab first to see if they had found anything yet. When Steve saw me come in he hurried up and scooted out of there. When I came from the lab Steve did not look up from the reports he was typing and I went on into my office closing the door.

The lab finally called with print results. Running the print through the system gave us the name of a young woman slightly older than Steve. I called Steve into my office and told him the name of the person that had left a partial print on the note with the roses. He didn't recall knowing anyone by that name.

If there can be any trouble with women, it is sure to find my young partner, even when he is engaged and soon to be married to my daughter. Now we are left wondering where their paths have crossed and what - if anything- Steve has done to raise this kind of ire in her. All I know is God help him if he has done anything to shame my daughter and their relationship!"

**Steve **  
>"When we finally made it home, the team that was stationed outside the house reported no incidents. We told them they could go since we were going to be home. Mike checked on Jeannie, then we both went to sleep.<p>

During the night thinking I heard a noise I went to check, out of the darkness a figure lunged at me wielding a broken bottle. Struggling with the individual, I came to realize it was a woman and in the second my thoughts were distracted by that information she sank the broken end of the bottle into my shoulder. I guess our struggles woke Mike. The lights came on and there he was with his revolver, between the two of us we got her under control and he cuffed her.

Jeannie slept through it all thanks to the sedative. Mike had the woman taken downtown with a variety of charges filed against her. When I finally got a look at her, yes, I recognized her from a party I had been to at my friend, Johnny's house. I just had never known her name.

I told Mike the circumstances of the meeting and at least he knows there was nothing wrong done on my part- now I just have to explain to Jeannie, I guess."

**Mike **  
>"Things are back to normal as much as they can be. Who would have thought my buddy boy's antagonizer would be a woman scorned? Thankfully, he was not hurt worse than he was.<p>

When it was explained to Jeannie, I felt the need to help him out as I felt badly for my thoughts of this might have been his doing in a way. Jeannie has this ability to read people's eyes to gauge the truth so knew Steve was a victim of a fatal attraction in this case.

She did lay down the law to him, that he is no longer allowed to attend parties without her there with him. Even when they might already be ongoing if he goes to just visit a friend - he agreed to that rule faster than you could imagine.

Now I just have to find some way to apologize to him for my words to him in the heat of anger and my thoughts that were burning in my mind. I hate apologizing - maybe that is why i have never been really good at it."


End file.
